By Jade, Sam, Laura, & Kaitlin
This is a list composed of films, TV shows, podcasts, social media accounts, and articles to help everyone become educated on the topics surrounding race. In compiling this list of resources we hope everyone takes the time to educate and further understand how to become a better ally.
Films
- When They See Us – account of the Central Park Five, now known as the Exonerated Five
- The 13th – the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration
- Just Mercy – the story of a black man on death row for a crime he did not commit
- Say Her Name: The Life & Death of Sandra Bland – about Sandra Bland, who was found hanged in a jail cell in 2015
- Selma – depiction of Dr. King’s march from Selma to Montgomery, which led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965
- The House I Live In – the impact of the War on Drugs on prisoners, prison guard, and the United States as a whole
- If Beale Street Could Talk – depicts the unlawful justice system and racial injustice faced by a black couple in the 1960s
- I Am Not Your Negro – documentary about the life and work of James Baldwin
- Fruitvale Station – based on a true story, recounts the death of a black man at the hands of a white police officer
- Maya Angelou: Still I Rise – the story of the iconic writer, poet, actress, and activist, Maya Angelou
- The Hate U Give – follows a teenage girl facing code-switching and police brutality
- Do the Right Thing – quintessential movie about police brutality
- Moonlight – highlights the grief and trauma facing black men, particularly through an LGBTQ lens
- Dead Presidents – about black soldiers in Vietnam and the struggles they faced returning home
- Loving – about the real-life couple Richard and Mildred Loving, who was at the center of the Supreme Court case that took down the ban on interracial marriage
- BlacKKKlansman – set in the 1970s, it follows the first Black detective in Colorado Springs police department as he sets out to infiltrate and expose the local Ku Klux Klan chapter
- The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross – series chronicling the full sweep of African American history, from the origins of slavery on the African continent up to the present day
- Freedom Riders – the story of American civil rights activists’ peaceful fights against segregation on buses and trains in the 1960s
- Eyes on the Prize – 14-party documentary about the Civil Rights Movement in the United States
- Dark Girls – explores a deep-seated bias within black culture against women with darker skin
- Time: The Kalief Browder Story – series tracing the case of Kalief Browder, a Black Bronx teen who spent three years in jail, despite not being convicted of a crime
TV Shows
- Watchmen – generational repercussions of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre
- Black-ish – straightforward series about race following an upper-middle-class black family living in a predominantly white neighborhood
- The Wire – addresses structural racism and the impact of the educational system
- Insecure – young black professionals living in Los Angeles navigating friendships, relationships, and microaggressions in the workplace
- Dear White People – follows a group of Black students at an elite Ivy League university where they are the minority
Books:
Anti-racism
- How to Be an Anti-Racist – Ibram X. Kendi
- Uprooting Racism: How White People Can Work for Racial Justice – Paul Kivel
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism – Robin DiAngelo
- Stamped: Racism, Anti-Racism, and You – Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds
- Antagonists, Advocates, and Allies: The Wake Up Call Guide for White Women Who Want to Become Allies with Black Women – Catrice M. Jackson
- White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White – Daniel Hill
- Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America – Michael Eric Dyson
- America’s Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America – Jim Wallis
- Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor – Layla F. Saad
AUTOBIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR
- The Fire Next Time – James Baldwin
- Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Heavy – Kiese Laymon
- Black Like Me – John Howard Griffin
MASS INCARCERATION & CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Are Prisons Obsolete? – Angela Y. Davis
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness – Michelle Alexander
Just Mercy – Bryan Stevenson
RACE IN AMERICA
So You Want to Talk About Race – Ijeoma Oluo
The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? – Beverly Daniel Tatum
Under Our Skin: Getting Real About Race, Getting Free from the Fears and Frustrations that Divide Us – Benjamin Watson
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr
Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do – Claude Steele
Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence: Understanding and Facilitating Dialogues on Race – Derald Wing Sue
Dark Days – James Baldwin
Podcasts
- Code Switch – race & identity
- Yo, Is This Racist? – questions from listeners about whether or not something is racist
- About Race – how to get involved in anti-racism activism
- Come Through – 15 pivotal conversations about race in 2020
- The Nod – stories about black life & culture
- Counter Stories – effects of implicit bias and institutional racism on women of color’s reproductive health
- Speaking of Racism – frank conversations about anti-racism
- Still Processing – how everything from books to arts to movies intersects with race in America
- The United States of Anxiety – race post-Civil War Seeing White
- Seeing White – history of whiteness in America
- America Identity Politics – discussions about race, gender, culture, and faith
- The Stoop – mix of conversations and reported stories, especially under-discussed black experiences
Articles
- “America’s Racial Contract Is Killing Us” by Adam Serwer | Atlantic (May 8, 2020)
- Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement (Mentoring a New Generation of Activists
- “My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant” by Jose Antonio Vargas | NYT Mag (June 22, 2011)
- The 1619 Project (all the articles) | The New York Times Magazine
- The Combahee River Collective Statement
- “The Intersectionality Wars” by Jane Coaston | Vox (May 28, 2019)
- Tips for Creating Effective White Caucus Groups developed by Craig Elliott PhD
- “Where do I donate? Why is the uprising violent? Should I go protest?” by Courtney Martin (June 1, 2020)
- “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” by Knapsack Peggy McIntosh
- “Who Gets to Be Afraid in America?” by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi | Atlantic (May 12, 2020)
Instagrams Accounts
Antiracism Center: Twitter
Audre Lorde Project: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Black Women’s Blueprint: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Color Of Change: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Colorlines: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
The Conscious Kid: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Equal Justice Initiative (EJI): Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Families Belong Together: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Justice League NYC: Twitter | Instagram + Gathering For Justice: Twitter | Instagram
The Leadership Conference on Civil & Human Rights: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
The Movement For Black Lives (M4BL): Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
MPowerChange: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Muslim Girl: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
NAACP: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
National Domestic Workers Alliance: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
RAICES: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ): Twitter | Instagram | Facebook